The weather does not encourage taking out the barbecues at the moment. Although… some braved the wind and rain for the first Walloon Barbecue Championship. The principle: teams of 2 to 6 people with one objective: to offer the best cooking and the best dishes.
They have trained all year round, and even in the rain, barbecue fans are there for the Walloon championship. During this event, grilling enthusiasts compete as a team. “These are about 200 barbecues per year at my house, I have a covered area at home. For example, Christmas is about barbecues. explains a participant. “It’s a little challenge that we gave ourselves, we have a common passion with my teammate, it’s cooking“, adds Laurent, another amateur.
During 6.5 hours, they did everything to prove their mastery of barbecue, but some, like Gérald, also had to find solutions for grilling in the rain. “We established a little tactic, we said to ourselves that we were going to do this with several barbecues because, well, obviously, the weather is really not good. We anticipated, we went to look for a parasol“, he explains.
When it comes to cooking, everyone has their own method: while some work to the exact degree, others do it by feeling. “It’s feeling things, when you feel… it can’t be explained, it’s in your gut,” notes Jean-Pierre, participant.
Then, it’s time for the tasting with chefs impressed by the level of certain participants despite the complicated conditions. “Not easy conditions for them, they had the wind, they had the rain so the cooking also changed depending on the weather“, notes Marc, one of the members of the jury. “There are people who came to have a laugh, but others who are very professional“.
The jury notes the presentation, the preparation and especially the cooking. One thing is certain: without these grill fans, the first smells of barbecue would still have taken a little time to arrive in Belgium.
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